Photo courtesy: House Press and Public Affairs Bureau)
The entire nation was focused on the House of Representatives QuadCom hearing on the war on drugs and extrajudicial killings attributed to former President and erstwhile Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte.
The hearing which lasted for 14 hours started with kilometric oratory from the Chairpersons of the Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Accounts, Public Order and Safety, and Human Rights. The Chair, Ace Barbers from Surigao, started off with a litany of ‘what have you’ then followed by a vomit-inducer sermon from Benny Abante. (In the previous hearing he was addressed as a Baptist Pastor. Last Wednesday however he introduced himself as Bishop Benny Abante. )
Abante harangued the public about himself and how well he can speak English and proceeded to pester everyone with his claims that he delivered thousands of votes for Duterte from his religious followers. The last time I knew, except for Makati, the entire Metro Manila and Mindanao elected Duterte President . Abante also resented why he was not accorded a red-carpet reception in Malacanang when the Davao City mayor won.
Abante, like all speakers, was reading his incendiary speech from a script. The former President on the other hand was not allowed to respond or allowed to deliver his own opening remarks. It’s like beating a protagonist to the pulp first before a boxing match is called. From thence the public knew how and where the hearing is bound to.
After Abante, the rest of the talks are a rehash of the first, differing only in inflections and personal chutzpah. In most of the accusations raised Duterte claimed full responsibility.
QuadCom even called a witness, a certain Acierto, by zoom to which the President objected to. Only then did Barbers say that under their rules zoom appearance is allowed. Acierto claimed that he is somewhere in the planet and that he cannot attend the hearing because Duterte had ordered him killed. Duterte’s repartee was brief and crisp: “Kung pinapatay kita, bakit buhay ka pa”. (If I had you killed why are you still alive?).
I don’t know what was the impact of Duterte’s response for Chairman Barbers quickly suspended the session.
The inseparable duo, former senators Liela de Lima and Antonio Trillanes were of course there. Liela was ranting over Duterte’s statement that he doesn’t know her. What PRRD meant was -who wouldn’t know De Lima who had been haunting her for two decades over the issues of EJK and DDS?
Trillanes on the other hand, spooked citizen Duterte and came up with his recycled allegations that then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and daughter Sara have a joint account at the Bank of the Philippine Island branch in Ortigas, Pasig with billions of pesos in deposits. If I recalled right, the Central Bank, AMLC and BPI issued separate certifications that they are not the source of the bank statement which Trillanes had been flaunting. One of the talents of this ex-Senator aside from staging aside from being a putschist is to pull out some tricks like recruiting prevaricating witnesses like Matobato and coming out with documents no one knows where the sources are.
Liela was exuberant over Duterte’s statement that he has his own Davao Death Squad. She lighted up in triumph as this, according to her, affirmed the confession of her star witness Edgar Matobato. Her only problem now is to produce a single piece of evidence to back Matobato and her own allegations that thousands of EJK victims were buried in an abandoned quarry in Davao City. She had been searching since 2009 and it’s now one month shy from 2025 but all that she can produce is figment from her imagination.
QuadCom invited Mayor/President Rodrigo Duterte to face a 14-hour ordeal and lopsided investigation. Any which way you look at it the probe has nothing to do with legislation but crucifixion of a 79-year old man who did what has to be done for the present and future generations. What else can they do to the man who now and again challenged his accusers to file cases against him. He had said he can rot in prison and fry in hell for every Filipino, to include his accusers, and the youths to live in paradise.
QuadCom has yet to come out with a consolidated finding. The nation had been watching the proceedings. If we consider the magma of posts on Facebook as basis of the people’s verdict, clearly their messages are exoneration of Duterte from the accusations heaped against him and a repudiation of the insidious act of the House of Romualdez to discredit the man who saved the country from becoming a narco state and haven of crime syndicates.
